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By: one million words, Pete Jahn
Sep 02 2011 12:47pm
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Hammie’s The State of the Program for September 2nd      
 
This series is an ongoing tribute to Erik “Hamtastic” Friborg.
 

Editorial Section:   The Cost of Modern

Modern is a format – at least for now. We will see what happens after the Pro Tour. For now, though, Modern is not a cheap format. Cost of the mana base is very close to that of Legacy. It is orders of magnitude higher than the cost of a mana base in Standard. To illustrate, let me list the prices of the various two colored lands from MED (the true duals), Ravnica block, M12 and Scars. 
 

Land Colors
Duals
Ravnica
M12
Scars
UB
$ 32.00
$ 10.00
$ 0.35
$ 2.00
UW
$ 26.00
$ 26.75
$ 0.40
$ 2.75
UG
$ 19.00
$ 33.50
 
 
UR
$ 11.50
$ 19.50
 
 
RG
$ 14.00
$ 18.75
$ 0.08
$ 1.30
RB
$ 10.00
$ 17.50
$ 0.15
$ 1.50
RW
$ 8.50
$  9.50
 
 
BW
$ 13.50
$ 15.50
 
 
GW
$ 17.50
$ 10.75
$ 0.12
$ 1.15
GB
$ 14.50
$ 10.50
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cost of Complete Playset
$ 666.00
$ 689.00
$ 4.40
$ 34.80

 
Right now, a playset of Ravnica duals is more expensive than a playset of true duals (but not as much as Whiffy thought – it’s pretty close.) Moreover, the Ravinca duals are riding a new-format / just-before-the-Pro-Tour boom. That won’t last. Prices will crash post PT, especially for cards that don’t find a place in Tier One decks. It is already happening to Dark Confidant. Still, the prices are really high, especially for Ravnica duals, and that could be a problem. 
 
I am not saying that cards cannot be expensive. Anything that is scarce and desirable is expensive. It is annoying for new players to be unable to compete in some formats because they cannot immediately afford the cards, but that happens in any game or sport. Personally, I would love to be racing classic sports cars, but my budget won’t cover a Jaguar XKE or a 427 Shelby Cobra. That’s life.
 
However, I think it is a lot more problematic when the big cost of a format is the mana base. Paper Legacy is reaching a crisis point as its dual lands begin to top $100 apiece. Modern is trying to launch when every decent deck is expensive. This is a recipe for disaster. Wizards produced DreamBlade, a really cool miniatures game, but the cost of the game killed it.
 
A format will flourish if it is fun to play – or at least fun enough to convince players that the enjoyment outweighs the investment. Investing in a really good card is often worth it. I paid a ton for my paper Jaces, but I won several tournaments as a result and I felt it was money well spent. However, while spending money on insane cards can be justified, spending serious money on a mana base is tougher.   Professional players, and grinders, know that you have to do that. The problem is that newer or more casual players do not. Unfortunately, we need to attract lots of these players for a format to succeed. Otherwise, Modern could become a niche format, like Classic or K-Scope. (Digression: could Kaleidoscope have been more successful if Wizards had named it something people could spell? You would think they had learned after “Mercadian Masques.”)
 
I had really hoped that Wizards would have reprinted the Ravnica duals in a core set before Modern was a reality. I fully expected them to be in M12. After all, the names of the lands – Breeding Pool, Watery Grave, etc. – were not set specific. They were nothing like Shivan Gorge or Selesyna Sanctuary. They would not cause any confusion in the core set – but they never showed up. 
 
Since then, Wizards has printed the current set of lands, (e. g. Dragonskull Summit), in three consecutive core sets. These are fine duals, and the mechanic (Dragonskull Summit enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a Swamp or a Mountain) is elegant. However, since the lands have been reprinted three straight times, they are super cheap. They table in drafts and sell for next to nothing. Time for them to be replaced.
 
Innistrad, the next set, will have lands with the same mechanic, but in enemy colors. The Innistrad lands will also have names that are not tied to the set – names like Sulfur Falls. These could also find a place in core sets. Finally, the Scars two color rare lands, like Blackcleave Cliffs, are also potential cost set duals. They also have a simple mechanic, and generic names.  Core sets could easily rotate between these options for years. 
 
All of this means that I am less and less inclined to expect the Ravnica duals to ever see reprint in a core set. That’s a shame, since they are, when combined with fetch lands, an order of magnitude better than the M12, Innistrad and Scars alternatives.  I think Modern needs them to be reprinted, and soon. The NIX PAX Ravnica drafts available next week will not be enough. The other possibility – that the set after Innistrad block is a return to Ravnica, and includes the Ravnica duals, is a possibility, but that may come too late for Modern. 
 
We will see. 
 

News and Discussion Items:

Innistrad Spoilers are Coming Out: We are only a month or so away from the paper prerelease. Wizards is spoiling cards right and left. The WotC visual spoiler contains all the cards officially released. Other websites can provide rumors and speculation. I’m not going to add anything at the moment. I write these articles two days before posting, so anything I write about will be stale by the time you read this.  
 
Modern is Taking Shape: Cloudpost seems to be dominating the format, but not to an unhealthy extent. I have seen a dozen radically different archetypes go undefeated in events over the last week.   Tournament sizes are down a bit from the initial surge, but they are still holding strong. Sweet! 
 
I have included a metagame breakdown is the Cutting Edge Tech section.
 
Phantom Events:  Wizards announced yet another way to draft or play sealed – “phantom events.” Phantom events cost a few TIX, and you don’t keep the cards. The first event was Sunday, and it maxed out at 256 players at least an hour beforehand
 
From the Vault Legends is in the store.  This is not insane, but it does have some cards not available otherwise.
 
Tournaments:
Thursday Night Magic the upcoming week (September 8th):  M12 draft. TNMO are cheap drafts, and always fill. Go it!  The TNMO card for September is an alternative art Teetering Peaks.  
 
Ravnica Block Nix Pax drafts are coming back September 7th through 14th. It is a chance to open some of those super-expensive Ravnica duals and/or a Dark Confidant. I’ll try to remember to do an EV analysis for Ravnica next week.
 
No analysis of the rate at which tournaments fired this week. Wizards still has not updated their calendar to include Modern, so I don’t have a baseline. 
 

Cutting Edge Tech:

Standard: Standard had one big event – the GP in Pittsburgh. Total attendance was around 1,400. The Top 8 featured some control, plus Birthing Pod, Splinter Twin, Mono Red and – surprise – Tempered Steel! Skimping on the Nature’s Claims and Days of Judgment can let that sort of thing  happen. 
 
Here’s the winning deck:

 

 
Modern: BOOM! Modern is here and going strong. Here’s a list of the Modern events for the first week, and the decks that went 4-0 / made Top 8. Some typical decklists follow. 
·        08/24 Modern Daily: Affinity, 12Post w/ Scapeshift, Shamans, Melira Combo, Curio Elves, 12Post,
·        08/25 | Modern Daily: 12Post w/ Scapeshift, Boros, UW Teferi, Splinter Twin,
·        08/25 | Modern Daily: Shamans, Living End, 12Post,
·        08/25 | Modern Daily: Dragonstorm, Affinity,
·        08/25 | Modern Daily: 12Post, Melira Combo, GB Cry,
·        08/25 | Modern Daily 12Post, 12 Post w/ Scapeshift, Mystic Teachings, Melira Combo, Hive Mind,
·        08/26 | Modern Daily: Confidant Zoo, 12Post, Pyromancers Ascension, Splinter Twin, GB Death Cloud,
·        08/26 | Modern Daily: Melira Combo, Confidant Zoo, Pyromancer’s Ascension,
·        08/26 | Modern Daily: Jund, GB Cry, Curio Elves,
·        08/26 | Modern Daily: Splinter Twin, Merfolk, 12Post, Melira Combo,
·        08/27 | Modern Daily: Boros, Merfolk, Affinity, Boros
·        08/27 | Modern Daily:  Affinity, Death Cloud, Melira Combo
·        08/27 | Modern Daily: 12Post, Confidant Zoo,
·        08/27 | Modern Daily: UG 12Post, Affinity, 12Post
·        08/28 | Modern Daily:  Merfolk, Living End, 2 * 12Post
·        08/28 | Modern Daily: Jund, Pyromancer’s Storm, Splinter Twin, 12Post w/ Scapeshift
·        08/28 | Modern DailyHive Mind, Merfolk
·        08/28 | Modern Daily: Hive Mind, UG 12Post
·        08/28 | Modern Daily: Hive Mind, Melira Combo, 12Post
·        08/29 | Modern Daily: Living End, 12Post, Gifts Ungiven,
·          08/29 | Modern DailyHive Mind, Splinter Twin, 12Post
·        8/28 Modern Premier: Confidant Zoo, Splinter Twin, 12Post, Affinity, Melira Pod, Pyromancer Ascension, Naya Zoo, Jund
·        08/28 | Modern Daily: Hive Mind, Merfolk
·        08/28 | Modern Daily: Hive Mind, UG 12Post
·        08/28 | Modern Daily: Pyromancer Ascension, Melira Pod, 12Post
·        08/29 | Modern Daily: Living End, 12Post, Gifts
·        08/29 | Modern Daily: Hive Mind, Splinter Twin,
·        08/29 | Modern Daily: 12Post, Splinter Twin
·        08/29 | Modern Daily: Melira Pod, 12Post, Splinter Twin, Affinity
·        08/29 | Modern Daily: Affinity, Confidant Zoo, Splinter Twin
·        08/30 | Modern Daily: Affinity, 2 * 12Post, Splinter Twin
·        08/30 | Modern Daily: Pyromancer Ascension, GB Cry, UG 12Post
·        08/30 | Modern Daily: Zoo, Melira Pod
·        08/30 | Modern Daily: Splinter Twin, 12Post, GB Cry
·        08/30 | Modern Daily: Punishing Zoo, 2 * Splinter Twin, 12Post
·        08/31 | Modern Daily: 12Post, 2 * Pyromancer Ascension, Jund,
·        08/31 | Modern Daily: Splinter Twin, 2 * Naya Zoo
Here’s the metagame, going into the Pro Tour:
 

Deck
Finishes
 
Deck
Finishes
Splinter Twin
`5
 
Zoo
10
12Post
29
 
     Confidant Zoo
5
        Mono-green 12Post
21
 
     Punishing Zoo
1
        Scapeshift 12Post
4
 
     Naya Zoo
3
        UG 12Post
4
 
Living End
4
Melira / Birthing Pod
11
 
Shamans
2
Hive Mind
8
 
Curio Elves
2
Gifts Ungiven
2
 
Pyromancer Ascension
8
Jund
4
 
Merfolk
5
Affinity
7
 
GB Cry of Contrition
4

Let’s look at some typical builds of some of these decks. The builds do vary, but these are pretty good guides. I would also note that the metagame could change a lot once the Pro Tour gets underway.

Affinity
Modern prior to the Pro Tour (sneakattackkid's version)
Creatures
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Atog
4 Frogmite
4 Memnite
4 Ornithopter
4 Signal Pest
3 Vault Skirge
27 cards

Other Spells
4 Cranial Plating
4 Fling
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Mox Opal
3 Springleaf Drum
19 cards
Lands
2 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Inkmoth Nexus
4 Mountain
14 cards

Arcbound ravager
 
 

 

Hive Mind
Modern prior to the Pro Tour
Creatures
4 Deceiver Exarch
4 Simian Spirit Guide
8 cards

Other Spells
2 Gitaxian Probe
4 Hive Mind
4 Pact of Negation
4 Pact of the Titan
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Rite of Flame
3 Seething Song
3 Splinter Twin
32 cards
Lands
7 Island
4 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Shivan Reef
1 Steam Vents
20 cards

Hive Mind
 

 

 

 

 
 
 
Splinter Twin
Modern prior to the Pro Tour
Creatures
4 Deceiver Exarch
2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
3 Pestermite
9 cards

Other Spells
4 Cryptic Command
2 Echoing Truth
3 Gigadrowse
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Remand
3 Spell Pierce
4 Splinter Twin
28 cards
Lands
3 Dreadship Reef
5 Island
1 Molten Slagheap
3 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Shivan Reef
4 Steam Vents
23 cards

Pestermite
 
 
 
Legacy and Classic did not do much this week, so I am going to spend my time on Modern.
 

Card Prices:  

Note: for cards that are available in multiple sets, I am generally quoting the most recent set’s price, which is almost always the lowest. Thus, the price I’m quoting for Primeval Titan is from M12. 
 
Standard prices have recovered slightly. Many of these are also being played in Modern.
 

Standard & Block Cards
Price
In Stock?
Last Week
Change
$ 9.95
Y
$ 10.50
- $ 0.55
$ 18.00
Y
$ 18.00
---
$ 18.50
Y
$ 20.50
- $ 2.00
$ 4.50
N
$ 4.50
---
$ 8.95
N
$ 7.50
+ $ 1.45
$ 20.00
Y
$ 18.50
+ $ 1.50
$ 9.50
Y
$ 8.50
+ $ 1.00
$ 19.75
Y
$ 16.50
+ $ 3.25
$ 18.50
Y
$ 19.50
- $ 1.00
$ 13.95
Y
$ 13.95
---
$ 7.75
Y
$ 7.50
+ $ 0.25
$ 12.75
Y
$ 12.25
+ $ 0.50
$ 23.00
Y
$ 22.00
+ $ 1.00
$ 23.00
Y
$ 20.00
+ $ 1.00
$ 9.95
N
$ 9.95
---
$ 7.25
Y
$ 6.95
+ $ 0.30
 $ 15.50
Y
 $ 15.50
---
$ 4.95
Y
$ 4.75
+ $ 0.20
$ 1.15
Y
$ 1.15
---

 
Modern cards seem to be over the hump. The duals are still stupid expensive, but those that are not seeing a ton of play are dropping. Other cards seem to be in an adjustment phase. Whatever – the Pro Tour will shake up prices again, so next week everything will be different. 
 
Note: speaking as an economist, these prices show every sign of a bubble. I would put the odds of a crash at above 50%, but the severity of the crash will really depend on the popularity of the post-Pro Tour metagame. If the metagame is 12Post vs. Splinter Twin and Hive Mind, expect quite a fall. If there are 6-10 viable decks, including some beatdown, then the fall will be mild and should be followed by a decent recovery.
 

Modern Cards
Price
In Stock?
Last Week
Change
$ 33.50
Y
$ 35.00
- $ 1.50
$ 10.00
Y
$ 15.50
- $ 5.50
$ 19.75
Y
$ 22.50
- $ 2.75
$ 13.50
Y
$ 17.50
- $ 4.00
$ 12.50
Y
$ 14.00
- $ 1.50
$ 23.00
Y
$ 22.00
+ $ 1.00
 $ 14.00
Y
 $ 12.50
+ $ 2.00
$ 10.95
Y
$ 12.50
- $ 1.50
$ 78.00
Y
$ 90.00
- $ 12.00
$ 18.75
Y
$ 20.00
- $ 1.25
$ 10.50
Y
$ 10.00
+ $ 0.50
$ 21.75
Y
$ 25.00
- $ 3.25
$ 18.50
N
$ 14.50
+ $ 4.00
$ 15.50
Y
$ 20.00
- $ 4.50
$ 24.00
N
$ 23.50
+ $ 0.50

Legacy prices are stabilizing.  Big Jace is going down, as he is playable in fewer and fewer formats. 
 

Legacy Cards
Price
In Stock?
Last Week
Change
$ 125.00
N
$ 124.00
+ $ 1.00
$ 49.00
Y
$ 49.00
---
$ 74.10
Y
$ 77.22
- $ 3.12
$ 32.00
Y
$ 32.00
---
$ 32.00
Y
$ 32.50
- $ 0.50
$ 1.75
Y
$ 2.50
- $ 0.75
$15.50
Y
$17.00
- $ 1.50
$ 20.00
Y
$ 19.00
+ $ 1.00
$ 17.50
Y
$ 17.50
---
$ 70.00
Y
$ 70.00
---
$ 42.75
Y
$ 44.55
- $ 1.80
$ 6.25
N
$ 6.25
---
$ 9.00
Y
$ 9.00
---
$ 13.75
Y
$ 13.75
---
$ 11.95
N
$ 11.95
---
$ 5.75
Y
$ 5.75
---
 
 
 
 
 

Note: cards which are staples in both Legacy and Classic may appear in either list. If you don’t see a card in one list, check the other.
 
Classic prices are still stable.
 

Classic Cards

Price

In Stock?

Last Week

Change

Lion’s Eye Diamond

$ 96.00

Y

$ 96.00

---

Metalworker

$ 25.00

Y

$ 25.00

---

Goblin Welder

$ 18.95

Y

$ 18.95

---

Mishra’s Workshop

$ 13.00

Y

$ 13.95

- $ 0.95

Oath of Druids

$ 16.00

Y

$ 16.00

---

Sphere of Resistance

$ 9.95

Y

$ 9.95

---

Vampiric Tutor

$ 27.00

Y

$ 26.00

+ $ 1.00

Null Rod

$ 44.00

Y

$ 44.00

---

Entomb

$ 40.00

Y

$ 40.00

---

Stifle

$ 12.00

Y

$ 12.00

---

Phyrexian Dreadnought

$ 22.00

Y

$ 22.00

---

The Top Ten:

Here’s this week’s list of the top ten most expensive non-foil, non-promo cards on MTGO. No big changes, just a bit of shuffling in the middle of the pack.
 

Most Expensive Cards
Price
Set
Last Week
$ 125.00
MED 1
# 1
$ 95.00
Mirage
# 2
$ 78.00
Future Sight
# 3
$ 74.10
Apocalypse
# 4
$ 70.00
Visions
# 5
$ 49.00
Tempest
# 6
$ 44.00
Weatherlight
# 8
$ 42.75
Apocalypse
# 7
$ 40.00
Odyssey
# 9
$ 35.00
Dissension
# 10

No deck prices this week. I’ve spent too many hours on Modern, and those prices will need to stabilize before pricing those decks is meaningful. Maybe next week.
 

Weekly Highlights:

I have been playing some Modern – mainly 12Post with Tooth and Nail – and drafting. Other than that, I have been rebuilding my garage. The previous owners apparently didn’t know that non-treated wood on cement means rot, so I have to replace the sill plates all around. This means jacking up the walls, one at a time, and replacing the sills in sections. It is a hard, messy job, but I’m rewarding myself with Magic – work two hours, do a draft. If it wasn’t 95 degrees F and humid, I might not get quite so many drafts.   
 
PRJ
 
“one million words” on MTGO.

14 Comments

Modern events are listed on by GainsBanding at Fri, 09/02/2011 - 13:19
GainsBanding's picture

Modern events are listed on the Premier Event calendar. At least for now until they update the main calendar.

No mention of this being the last week of Urza drafts?

standard by chiznad at Fri, 09/02/2011 - 13:22
chiznad's picture

the standard rotation cannot arrive soon enough. i am so curious to see what will become of it when zen rotates out. no more caw blade! yeah!!!!

I'm so torn with Modern. On by char49d at Fri, 09/02/2011 - 13:24
char49d's picture

I'm so torn with Modern. On the one hand, it is great that there is a reasonably cheap competitive deck in 12 post. On the other hand, the deck itself is an abomination,. It has exactly the same problems as the Valakut decks which they banned, except it is almost immune to traditional hand disruption and conditional counters. The fact that so many decks are running extensive land death main and board is definitely a warning sign, and probably an impending ban.

The format is actually faster than Legacy right now, because in Legacy combo decks have to worry about counterspells. What Modern really needs is viable control decks to keep the endless combo decks honest, aggro is not a good foil to combo.

I still hate the ban list by Ivo at Fri, 09/02/2011 - 14:04
Ivo's picture

I will see pretty soon if Modern is going to be a format I'm going to be interested in. The PT results will be the first sign (and so far that part indicates to "No"), but the decider is how WotC reacts. If they go and ban Cloudpost for example that is another sign that WotC have a different view from mine about what the format should be. If they admit they were very wrong in banning blue cards just to ban them, and in banning strong (but not overpowered) cards like Bitterblossom and therefore unban several of those, then it will look promising to me.

They really should unban the Mind Sculptor, Visions, Misstep and Bitterblossom. I wouldn't even mind if they kept Stoneforge banned for now (although I maintain it is also not overpowered) to unban later and it wouldn't be that terrible to have it banned for ages - but having the 4 mana planeswalker banned IS terrible in my opinion. It is a very potent card but not overpowered at all in this format.

As it is, it is obviously that 4 mana for a Jace and even a turn 3 active Batterskull does not seem so impressive (the few times that would really be happening, with all the good creature removal, artifact removal, bounce, discard, Clique and so on).

With the ban list, there are turn 3/4 ritual combo wins (sometimes turn 2 and they aren't THAT unreliable) and turn 3 Primeval titans (enabling even sillier plays turn 4 and 5). Cascade can pull up a turn 2 or 3 Restore Balance or a LD plan with Living End depending which of those 2 decks is a better Cascade combo. There is even the quirky turn 2 win with Blazing Shoal. And there is always Zoo at a power level quite comparable with Legacy Zoo (same creatures) - which is actually playable even in the midst of all this silliness, and also quite capable of competing with UW Stoneforge/Jace decks. So how exactly would Jace be overpowered?

Ivo.

I have a quick suggestion. by Alternate at Fri, 09/02/2011 - 14:27
Alternate's picture

Ok, I personally will not play Legacy, Modern, or Classic. It doesn't make sense to spend that much money on the cards that everyone has to play.

My suggestion?

Take standard. Then take the top winning deck of each daily and ban the deck. For example, Valakut wins, but that doesn't mean you can't play Valakut in a red deck or Primeval Titan in a green deck.
So what would happen is that after you get through the "tier 1" decks, people would be forced to use cards and make decks that are completely different than what we have seen.

I don't know how you would control it, or even moderate it, but I think it would make people take a second look at their cards, and think of new and interesting decks. They would still have standard, but it would be interesting to see what people come up with, especially at a time like this when Standard is stale.
So like after the main decks win, you would see an Elf deck win, or mono-blue infect win, or something interesting and cool we haven't seen before.

My favorite part of Magic before I quit 10 years ago and then restarted 6 months ago, was looking at all my cards and try to build a deck out of what I had. It would award people who see value in cards they would normally not look at twice, and who knows, maybe even before Innistrad comes out, we could see a new tier 1 deck.

My other idea, and it's a little more reasonable.

Have a draft style event multiple times daily where you take 30 commons and 15 uncommons and put them in a pile, and bring back something like the Ante games I used to play during the days where Black Lotus's were commonplace. They even made a card just for ante games in, I forget what set, but it was a black card that allowed you to switch out the card you were ante-ing for a card in your hand.
So you take the 40 cards, put them in a big pile, and then shuffle them up and place them in 15 cards piles and draft that.
The cards could be from any set, and (this would be an MTGO only thing) everyone has 900 of each useless commons and uncommons, so you wouldn't mind losing them, and then you play a swiss out of the drafted commons and uncommons, and for an entry fee of 1 ticket + cards, you would win packs of the most current set.

You would be putting cards you have on the line, could pick up some interesting commons and uncommons, lose some cards that you wouldn't miss, and maybe pick up some cool stuff you haven't seen before, and then the smartest deck builder wins because it would be like a standard/classic hybrid mock-ish draft with cards from a lot of sets.

They would also have to set the amount of colors, like there must be like 5 of each, for example.

Now feel free to flame me, I'm sure you will. It's not the best idea, but I think it would be a cool and cheap way to see who is the best player, and not the luckiest, since chances are the cards you are drafting are mostly garbage. I mean nobody is going to put in a playset of Dismember's.

(Not editing this) Guy below me, and the guy below him are calling me an idiot right now. Maybe the third guy finds it interesting, and the 4th guy says I'm an idiot.

? by apaulogy at Fri, 09/02/2011 - 15:24
apaulogy's picture

"Now feel free to flame me, I'm sure you will. It's not the best idea, but I think it would be a cool and cheap way to see who is the best player, and not the luckiest, since chances are the cards you are drafting are mostly garbage. I mean nobody is going to put in a playset of Dismember's.

(Not editing this) Guy below me, and the guy below him are calling me an idiot right now. Maybe the third guy finds it interesting, and the 4th guy says I'm an idiot"

This is just unnecessary.

I don't think you have vetted any of these ideas either. Do you understand the administrative nightmares you have just concocted? I realize that you are trying to come up with solutions, but I think that one thing you should ask yourself before posting these ideas is "How difficult would this be to administer?"

This is not a flame or anything like that. It is an appeal for logic.

Not a flame by mperetti at Fri, 09/02/2011 - 15:56
mperetti's picture

I agree with apaulogy that you should have thought this through a little more. The baseline idea isn't actually that bad, it's sort of like a no-rares cube draft, which could include multiples of different cards. The color balancing isn't the only problem. You say 5 of each, but I could bring 5 doom blades or 5 disentombs, huge power level difference. I could nerf all but one color with the cards I bring. Anyway, I don't want to discourage you from thinking outside of the box, but please do try to think of the consequences of your ideas

On that note - about ante: WOTC had to eliminate ante from the game because it essentially made playing gambling, which is illegal in many places in the world. You probably have missed this over the last couple years, but they even had to give out prizes of TVs and video game systems instead of money at German GP's because of gambling issues. Bringing back ante (even to online), is just not feasible from a legal standpoint for WOTC.

RAV Duals by mperetti at Fri, 09/02/2011 - 16:07
mperetti's picture
5

Great article as always.

One comment/idea on the RAV duals being reprinted that you brought up (well, actually two things that kind of go together):

I'm not positive WOTC wanted to initiate modern when it did. It seems like a somewhat rushed thing since "Extended" was a pretty bad and boring format that no one really wanted to play. So, they may have wanted to reprint the RAV duals before they started modern, but were forced to start modern before they had planned.

The second thing on RAV duals is that I don't think there was ever any chance they would allow the RAV duals and the Zendikar fetches to be in the same standard format. The mana fixing would be ridiculous, and decks would just jam as much broken stuff together as they could find (or all the other cards would have to be much worse, or much more color intensive). So, I'm not surprised they have not been printed in a core set yet, but I don't think that means they never will. There's also a decent to good chance they will revisit Ravnica in the next few years, so maybe we will see them back there (although that seems too predictable even for them).

Why would they visit their by walkerdog at Sat, 09/03/2011 - 02:19
walkerdog's picture

Why would they visit their (basically) best set again? I mean, with 10 2-color combos who all have their supporters and really weren't all fleshed out that well, why would they want to go back and flesh it out along with selling DI packs (maybe reversing the color-combos this time roughly? UB can stay p1 since it's the best and we need all the Wateries we can get but..)? Seems like a horrible idea to me! :)

does anyone else feel the new by blandestk at Fri, 09/02/2011 - 17:48
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does anyone else feel the new Vault release is total gar-bahj? i can't believe anyone would pay that much for those cards.

What is in the new vault release? by Alternate at Sat, 09/03/2011 - 12:15
Alternate's picture

I saw it, but thought it was like the last one with Karn, Masticore and Spa of Body and Mind.

And I'm sorry for controversy on the page, like I said, I just wanted to think of a new idea. And btw, all the cards would be shuffles together, so nobody would get what they put in, you put in 45 cards and they, along with the other people's 45 cards are all shuffled together and then placed randomly into 15 card groups and passed around as packs. But it was just an idea. I don't like the boring idea of everyone playing the same deck over and over and seeing who gets the better opening hand.

And Apaulogy, I really don't need to hear your comments. Especially from someone who plays matches he then records and edits with a program as good as iMovie, and has miserable music playing over it. It's downright unwatchable. And not to mention this is also the same guy who talks about other people's recordings. I mean you need to stop being so critical of everyone except yourself, all the while your articles on this site are the most unwatchable. Maybe if I was rolling on E and had the lights off, glow sticks, and a strobe light while the video starts, it would be almost watchable. "Oh look at me, I'm Apaulology and I can make a fade to black and then fade to white in between games of a match. That makes me better than you, I am the good lord Jesus Christ". Seriously bud, at least what I brought up was original, can you say the same?

Hey - enough name calling and by one million words at Sat, 09/03/2011 - 13:19
one million words's picture

Hey - enough name calling and criticism of each other.

In my articles, I'm the only one who can get criticism.

Nuf said?

K

actually by apaulogy at Sat, 09/03/2011 - 16:44
apaulogy's picture

I appreciate the honesty and feedback and take the post as a compliment.

Thank you, Alternate.

I don't really play casual by zaspacer at Sun, 09/04/2011 - 04:40
zaspacer's picture

I don't really play casual (or casual formats), but one thing Modern seems to have done is push sac-land-friendly duals out of reach for budget inclined players.